Naruto Himitsu, Nendaki no Sono Michi
by SpaceBunny-chan
Summary: “Are you sure these kids are your team, Raidou? Their not at all like I remember them…” KakashiOC GaaraOC ChoujiOC NejiOC SasukeOC. 4mychans
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:**

Eevee-…(bangs head on desk)

Raquel-Harsh…

Eevee-Grr, I said I wouldn't make any more stories, I promised I wouldn't! But noo, I did anyway! (bangs head on desk)

Peggi-Its okay Eevee, just breathe.

Eevee-But!

Peggi-(whacks Eevee with foam mallet) Shush!

Eevee-… thanks, I needed that…

Selene-I'll say…

Peggi-(whacks Selene with foam mallet)

Selene-Owie!

Eevee-Anyway, yesum, new fanfic from the authoress who swore off new stories for a while and is now going back on that promise. (dodges shoe) **Naruto is copyright Masashi Kishimoto-sama, the OC's in this story are based off of actual people for whom this story is written and will be credited at the end of each chapter as to not give identities away.**

**Summary: **In the world of the five lands, there are other ninja going about life other than our four main protagonists. These overlooked nin's each have their own story that makes them unique. This story fallows them, the ninja you didn't see on camera.

**Dedication:** For my chans, no one else. I love you and always will. We'll see each other again, until then, here's my gift to you.

**Naruto Himitsu, Nendaki no Sono Michi – Prologue **

Cold night air stung at the open wound on her stomach, the only thing reminding Eevee that she was still alive. The sun had set hours before, while Eevee and her two-team mates were traveling back to their home village of Konoha after a mission in Sand, but it hadn't really been a mission.

So maybe things had gotten out of hand, they had still won.

Officially, they had gone to Sand for diplomatic reasons, to 're-establish' the peace treaty between the 2 countries. But that hadn't taken long, after not much debate on either's side, the peace treaty was just about the same, save a change in wording here or there. But unofficially, they had gone because the Kazekage and his siblings missed the presence of team 11.

'_Gaara missed Naru!'_ They had teased him, but soon stopped when they noticed the sand start to move around his feet, indicating danger for the group.

Eevee had wondered what Naru saw in Gaara; he was hard to read and even harder to get close to.

Then again Naru was the same way, hard to read and next to impossible to get close to.

But she soon realized that it wasn't one sided. The two really connected on several levels, Eevee guessed it was to be expected. They were, after all, 'comfortable' with each other.

Hi had been compelled to give Gaara 'the talk' when she learned of the blossoming romance several months later. They all knew it was because Hi cared about Naru, but she really had no room to talk with her on-going relationship with a certain Come Come Paradise reader who was older by several years. Some might have found Hinote Hi and Hatake Kakashi's relationship weird, if not for them both being ninja. That seemed to change the rules considerably, and no one in the village objected.

The stinging in her stomach pulled Eevee from her thoughts, making her visibly wince.

Eevee's mind searched for answers, she didn't remember how things had gotten so out of hand. It had just been an easy mission, not even a mission by most standards. Tsunade and her anbu escort had gone back several days prior, and with a kind smile the lady Hokage had yielded to the Kazekage's request for team 11 to remain behind to see that the new treaty was sufficient. Then a week later, not being able to stay any longer, they were traveling through the familiar green woods around Konoha. Things had been quiet enough, simple, and they had chatted and laughed without a care.

They had been careless, and they had paid the price.

It couldn't have been bandits, their skills were to honed in the ways of ninja's. Missing-nins, perhaps? Eevee didn't think so; they didn't have the distinct black cloaks with swirling red clouds they Missing-nins seemed to be famous for (or was that the akatsuki orginization? Eevee couldn't think clearly at the moment). But who ever they were, they had the upper hand from the start. The three kunoichi were out-classed in almost every way.

Eevee smirked at a fallen enemy laying in a pool of his own blood, his head almost completely severed from his shoulders, and several kunai and throwing stars embedded in his body. They may have been out-classed with almost no hope of winning, but they had still managed to take out several before the rest had retreated.

"You guys still alive?" A rough, cracking female voice asked, her throat dry and burning. Eevee's smirk softened to a small smile, even in such a situation, Hi could still give off a very commanding demeanor.

"Barely." The softer voice of Ameshika Naru responded, and Eevee could just make out the silhouette of the shorter girl pushing herself off the ground with the help of a tree.

"Sutoon Eevee, are you still in the building?" Hi chuckled, retying some of her blue hairs back into its neat ponytail as she made her way over to where Eevee still lay, having made no attempt to stand. "Come on busty, we need to get moving." Her look soon changed from cocky and victorious to concerned when Hi saw the rather large wound on Eevee's stomach. "Oh shit… Naru, break out the bandages, we've got a problem."

"It's not that bad…" Eevee's actions betrayed her words when she gasped slightly, wincing again.

"Lying, stubborn…" Hi's intense yellow cat-like eyes looked at Eevee unimpressed, in a 'not falling for it' kind of way. Eevee not only had a very noticeable bloody wound in the moonlight, she also had cuts up and down her arms. Brushing some of Eevee's long red hair out of her face, Hi noted the large bruise on her left cheek. "Gods, you really are a lying slut."

The dark emerald eyes staring up at her flickered with anger for a moment, but that soon subsided. Hi shook her head, Eevee was always like this. Eevee stood up for others but not herself, she was always trying to make everyone else happy, and if anything was wrong with her she did _not_ talk about it. Ever since they were kids people had made fun of Eevee because she developed faster than the other girls (Hi had always thought it was stupid anyway), and she had never said a word, the only time Eevee ever said anything was when her mother was put on the spot.

The word slut had a bad meaning for Eevee, for all the women in her clan for that matter. Maybe it wasn't intended to be an insult from Hi, but from anyone else it left a bad feeling hanging in the air. Either way, Eevee would always tense at the word, and made it a point to never use it herself.

"Team 11's medical expert, at your service!" Naru chirped, and Hi knew why by the shiny new headband tied around her waist. It was a weird habit Naru had picked up; Hi didn't think it was from Gaara. Whenever she won a battle with an enemy ninja that was either dead or unconscious, Naru would take their headband as a little souvenir. This one had four short lines carved in the metal, indicating that their attackers must have been from Mist. Wannabe renegades, maybe?

Naru, seeing Eevee's stomach, went into super-medical-ninja-mode. With the contemplative look in the blonds silver blue eyes, Hi knew that Naru was going back to her training as a med nin, undoubtedly running through handbooks she had read in the past to find the best diagnosis.

"Deep wound, very clean, inflicted by a kunai, sharpened for maximum effect." And how could Hi forget, Naru was one of the biggest pointy object freaks in the entire village, next to herself of course. "Abnormal blood flow, indicating that the wound is deep and or the kunai had some sort of poison on it." Hi's eyes widened at that one, she hadn't thought that there was poison involved.

"_Careless _lying stubborn slut."

"Oh bite me." The strangled reply from the red head came, and she coughed a little. Without missing a beat, Hi leaned over and sunk her teeth into Eevee's upper arm. But Eevee didn't wince; she had expected something like that.

"If you make her bleed anymore that's going to make my job harder." Naru said, dabbing an antidote soaked cloth over Eevee's wound. "I think the poison was meant to increase blood flow, probably to make the victim bleed to death once it entered the blood stream." Naru shook her head, making the two protruding cat-ear like things on her headband shake and the metal of her forehead protector glint, some of her blond shoulder length hair still covering her right eye. When they had first become a team, Hi and Eevee had mercilessly made fun of Naru for the cat-like feature her headband gave her.

Then they met Kankuro.

If it was bad on a girl, it was even worse on a guy, and they wasted no opportunity to let him know it. Thought Eevee wasn't all that comfortable making jokes about someone outside their group, Kankuro and his siblings soon made the ranks of friends and all doubt was thrown to the wind. With all the black and kabuki paint, the list of things they could pick away at with Kankuro seemed endless. Of course, it wasn't because they didn't like Kankuro; it was because they did like him that they made fun of him, in a weird initiation sort of way. Plus Kankuro was fun to make fun of people with, so it all balanced out.

"Cloud-boy and Meatball are going to give me hell when we get back…" Hi shook her head thinking of the welcome they were going to get when they finally did return. Or more likely, what _she_ was going to get from two shinobi back home, they probably wouldn't bother with Naru. "She's going to be alright, isn't she?"

"The bleeding isn't stopping."

"So stop it." More panic clung to Hi's voice than she had indented.

"What does it look like I'm trying to do!" And Naru was clearly not taking this very well either. She worked feverishly to bandage the wound, to stop the bleeding, but found that with the poison it was increasingly difficult.

"Shit." Hi cursed under her breath, and she shook Eevee lightly. "Don't you dare die on me, I had to promise Chouji a billion times that you wouldn't get hurt!" The dark blue haired girl was finding she didn't like the distant, glazed look in her friend's green eyes. "Slut, don't you make me break my promise!"


	2. Chapter 1

**Naruto Himitsu, Nendaki no Sono Michi – Chapter 1**

Konoha buzzed with its usual happy carefree people, going about their lives like any other day. Ninja went on their missions; but a certain unease loomed over them. But seemingly, the fire country's inhabitants went on with life as usual. Laugher wafted in through the hospital window as Naru pulled the glass up, feeling the warm sun and cool breeze hit her at full, lazy force.

It was a nice day, but rather than spending it training like she usually would have…

Or napping in a tree…

Or reading, or a million other things she could think of doing at that very moment under any other normal circumstances. But right now she was in a hospital room, waiting for her teammate to re-join the living.

'_It's a nice day…'_ She thought inhaling the fresh air into her lungs, enjoying the little comfort it brought her. Naru had never really been an outdoor person, but after spending a week in a country riddled with sand, she was glade to be able to breathe in a deep breath of air without having sand fill her nose instantly.

The sound of the window blowing the curtains slowly, children laughing at play faintly in the distance, and Eevee's soft breathing helped to relax Naru, to the point where she had to shake herself once or twice to keep herself from falling over.

Naru slapped herself in an attempt to remain awake. _'Keep it together Naru…'_

But she seemed to be fighting a losing battle, and the next thing she new she was waking up to the door being opened, then shut loudly. The loud exasperated sigh was enough to give away exactly who it was who had entered the room.

"Shikamaru stopped by earlier, so did Hinata and Naruto, look they even brought flowers." Naru said. Turning to look at the blue haired woman, Naru pointed to a table by the bed, which had a vase and 2 flowers, one purple in color, the other a red and yellow flower Naru hadn't be able to recognize.

But Hi was agitated about something, so instead of responding, she plopped down on her back at the foot of the bed, staring at the ceiling.

"So, how did reporting to Tsunade-sama go?" The blond asked. Hi just sighed loudly, puffing out her cheeks and choosing to ignore Naru. "Chouji, Ino, and Asuma-sensei are on a mission, but they should be back before late afternoon according to Shikamaru, and he made it a point to tell you that they would be stopping by la-"

"Why wasn't Shikamaru on the mission with them?" Oh sure, that prompted a response from her.

"He was already on a mission, so they put Asuma-sensei in his place and left." Naru answered. Hi looked over at Naru, an eyebrow raised.

"So why didn't they send Kurenai's team, or even Gai's?"

"The same reason they didn't send Shikamaru, they were all on missions, what else?" Naru stated, leaning against the windowsill. Hi rubbed her temple, this whole day was starting to give her a headache.

Hi was only mildly aware of the smirk that crossed Naru's face, and she didn't particularly like it. She felt herself squirm a little under the blonde's one-eyed grinned gaze; it only meant something that would give her more of a headache, she could feel it.

"What?"

"I'm just surprised you didn't stop off at Kakashi's." Naru's grin threatened to over take her face.

"One of my best friends is lying in a hospital bed and you think I'd go over to a guys? Give me a little bit of credit, Naru."

"There's more to it than that, isn't there?" Flinch, damn, did Naru really know Hi _that_ well? Hi muttered something under her breath, shifting again. If Naru had a limit to just how smug she could look, she was there and exceeding it. "What was that?"

"He's on a mission." Hi glared when Naru burst into a fit of laughter, clutching her sides.

"I knew it! I knew it!" Naru gasped for breath, sliding down the wall to the floor.

"And _why_ do you find that so funny!" Hi spat, looking about ready to whop Naru on the head. "Grr, stop laughing!"

"Are you sure these kids are your team, Raidou? Their not at all like I remember them…" A male voice said, seemingly amused. Another cleared his throat, though it was obviously forced.

The 2 kunoichi finally came to the realization that they had an audience; one of them held an amused glint in his eyes, a rather sharp looking senbon hanging from his upward curved lips, the other looking over at them, not looking at all impressed, with one hand a partial fist over his mouth.

"R-Raidou-sensei… G-Genma-sama… Hehe… He…" Naru was a little more than surprised, and blushed slightly at being caught acting in such a manner. Usually she wouldn't have been caught so off guard, and the stammering wasn't like her at all; usually Eevee was the one in the group to be surprised so easily and become so embarrassed. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Somewhere between the Kakashi's place and the best friend lying in a hospital bed lines." Genma received a glare from his friend, who then proceeded to elbow him in the side with a little more force then necessary (or at least, more than _he_ thought was necessary).

"More flowers I see." Hi said, tilting her head at the flower her former sensei had in his other hand. "If this keeps up Eevee's going to need a bigger vase…" When they didn't move, Hi narrowed her eyes slightly in annoyance and waved them over. "Come on, Naru doesn't bite..."

Naru rolled her eyes at the other woman's comment, more that because they already knew wasn't necessarily true, and it sounded so odd when one said it aloud then for any other reason. Standing up and taking the flower from Raidou, Naru made her way over to the table to find them a place in the growing bundle.

"It's pretty, and its white. Eevee's going to be a smiling like an idiot when she wakes up." Hi said, noting the flower to be a white lily-looking thing. She didn't know what it was about the color white on a flower, but it seemed to be Eevee's favorite coloration for the petals.

Naru sighed deeply, and mouthed the words 'she's in that kind of mood' to Raidou, her former sensei nodded in response and smiled.

"They have her taking heavy medication, plus the anti-poison, then there are the pain killers…" Naru said, trying to recall exactly what the nurse's had been giving Eevee since their return.

"So if the blood loss doesn't have her out for a few days, the treatment undoubtedly will." Genma finished, sighing lightly. "The exact reason I hate hospitals…"

"A stoned guy like you, Genma-sama?" Hi teased, crossing her legs and leaning against the steal frame of the footboard.

"Yep, I prefer my drugs from more reliable sources." But instead of try and defend himself, Genma indulged Hi in her little coy ways. "Example, your boyfriend has the best batch in the whole village."

"Ha ha, very funny." Hi said sarcastically, she had to give Ganma that one; after all she had set herself up for it. The door clicked open again, yet another person decided to step in to join the party.

"How's the team holding up?" A dark green haired woman asked, smiling kindly at the room's occupants.

"We're all doing just fine Sutoon-san." Naru said, Hi and herself bowing slightly at the older woman's arrival.

"That's good, I was beginning to worry. When I heard what happened, I thought I was going to have a heart attack." Setsuna, Eevee's mother, laughed lightly and put her hand on her chest for emphasis. Really the only resemblance Eevee and her mother had was how much they cared about each other and their rather large chests; Eevee definitely took more after her father.

"You have nothing to worry about Setsuna-san, Eevee is doing just fine, and before you know it she'll be out in no time at all." Genma said, cracking another smile to reassure her.

"I'm so relieved." Setsuna smiled, nodding. She held up a large plastic bag, still smiling. "I made lunch boxes."

Hi immediately perked up at that; if there was one thing she liked about Eevee's mom, it was that she had a knack for cooking, just one more thing to set mother and daughter farther apart. As Setsuna went to work handing out the homemade morsels, the thought stayed with Naru a little more than usual.

Unlike her daughter, who was a carrot top, Setsuna had long dark green hair (some of which she felt the need to keep in a bun atop her head with the rest flowing just past her knees). Also unlike Eevee, Setsuna's eyes were a dark crimson, where as Eeveewere adark green. Their skin tones were also different, Setsuna being more tanned looking while Eevee seemed pale in comparison. Really, other than their body type, one wouldn't think they were related much less mother and daughter.

No, Eevee really did take more after her dado, which only added insult to injuiry.

Eevee's dad wasn't really the fatherly type, and in the end Setsuna had been the one to be blamed and scorned. It hadn't always been that way; at one point in time he had actually loved Setsuna and was indeed set to marry her. Then he had found out she was pregnant, and things had gone down hill from there. Immediately he had broken off the engagement completely, denying that the child was his, and left Setsuna to fend for herself against the ridicule from the villagers.

The whole thing made Naru hate him; for all he had made Eevee and Setsuna suffer through, all for his own view of the word pride.

"Naru, if you hold your chop sticks and tighter there going to snap.." Setsuna's soft giggles brought Naru from her angry thoughts over the matter. Naru nodded and poked at the food on her lap, while Hi practically inhaled her own.

She watched silently as Setsuna, Genma, and Raidou chatted about something that escaped her ears, what she really focused on was the light blush crossing the scarred face of her sensei and the peaceful expression on the older woman's face.

It wasn't exactly a secret that Raidou felt something for Setsuna, and Setsuna obviously knew herself. But it was still… Cute… If that was the word for it.

Even though she had been through so much, suffered with the weight of being thrown aside so easily and then having to raise a child on her own, Setsuna had persevered and kept living. If only for those reasons, Naru found that she held such respect for this woman it was only seconded to the respect she held for the Hokage.

"Boo!" Naru almost jumped out of her skin as she was jostled out of her thoughts by Hi, who had been watching her for sometime just sitting there with a dazed look in her eyes. Hi chuckled at her friend's priceless expression, Naru's eyes almost falling out of their sockets.

"Don't do that!" Naru said through clenched teeth after her heart rate had _almost_ returned to normal.

"Naru, Hi." The two looked over at their former sensei at being addressed, more of a reflex than an actual thing they made themselves do. Raidou smiled at the two, who seemed a little confused. "Let's go train a little."

"Train, Raidou-sensei?" Naru blinked, Raidou nodded.

"Your kidding right?" Hi snorted, a bit skeptical at what exactly it was Raidou was trying to accomplish. But added quickly. "I mean, you haven't done any training with us since we were 16…"

"All the more reason to." Genma said, stabbing some raw fish with his senbon and putting it his mouth. "Besides, your both so jumpy it would probably do you some good."

Hi stood up from the bed, looking serious and determined.

"If you insist," Hi cracked a grin, an idea forming in her mind. "but after words _you_ take us out for ramen, _your_ treat." Naru immediately seemed more interested in things at the mention of ramen; one of the three girls favorite editable substances.

Genma and Setsuna's eyebrows shot up, and they both looked at Raidou for some sort of reaction.

Radiou was silent for a moment as he thought, then allowed himself a smile.

"Alright, but _only_ if you complete the exercise, other wise _you two_ will be treating _me_."

"Deal!" Naru jumped up, excitement sparkling in her blue eye.

"I should get going as well." Setsuna said standing up and walking over to the table next to the bed, pulling out two more lunch boxes. "I have extra lunch boxes just in case the boys stop by…" She paused, a thought coming to mind, and pulled out another box. "I better leave an extra just in case Chouji's hungry…" She put down yet another box, and another, before she finally just set the whole bag on the table. "I can make more lunch's anyway…" Setsuna said, causing the room to fill with light chuckles, then leaned over and kissed her daughter on her pale forehead. "Wake up soon, Eevee."

"Your not staying, Sutoon-san?" Naru asked, she had expected Setsuna to stay for at least a little longer if not until Eevee finally did decided to become one of the living again.

"Unfortunately my mother is coming tomorrow, and I have things I need to take care of." Setsuna shook her head sadly. "But I'll be back tomorrow, as soon as I can."

"Tell grams I said hi!" Hi squeaked, grinning at the thoughts of the elder clan leader she had. Over the years each of the girls had grown closer, and referred to each other's family like their own. Misoko was just another example, and Hi particularly liked her because Misoko was so (not wanting to sound like Gai or Lee or anything, but…) 'youthful.'

_Even with the sun shining so brightly above, the wooded area seemed dark and cool even in the heat of the day._

_Tensely, three shadows crept here, darted there, and tried their best to stay out of sight. Target insight, one preformed some hand seals then jumped from the shadows at the seemingly unaware man below them. With ease Raidou kicked the blond in the stomach, and in an instant Naru dissolved in a puff of smoke and was replaced with a log. Spinning around Raidou's fist hit another Naru in the side, and like the first, the clone also disappeared in a cloud and the log thumped to the ground._

_Using what he knew about Naru's tactics, Raidou spun around once more and saw another Naru coming at him. Whacking her in the side, Raidou was surprised when she didn't just disappear like the other two._

_This one wasn't a clone._

_Grabbing hold of her sensei's outstretched arm Naru used her body weight to unbalance Raidou enough to topple him over, pinning his other arm under his body with Naru's extra weight keeping it wedged and immobile._

_"Now!" Naru yelled, trying to hold Raidou down as he struggled to get back up. Her teammates dashed from their hiding stops in the shadows and grabbed for Raidou's waste where 2 small silver bells hung._

After Setsuna's departure, along with Genma's own leave of the group (something about filing paper work was his excuse), Raidou had lead Naru and Hi off into an all to familiar part of the woods; a part of the woods the three girls had dubbed 'the doomed to fail' training area. It wasn't that they disliked the place; it was just that it didn't seem to have the best vibe when training.

_Jerking suddenly, Raidou managed to throw Naru off and free himself. Using Hi and Eevee's moment of surprise Raidou redirected the two away in opposite directions with his hands, sending the two toppling to the ground._

"_Very good, almost had them that time."_

Every training exercise the team had ever done their had been a disaster.

"We should have made sure it wasn't here that he wanted to train." Hi said, finding that complaining made her sour mood a little easier to bare.

The two women panted, dirt and leaves clinging to them. With the exception of their out of commission partner, this was almost like 'old times.'

"Yeah, well, at least he _looks_ like it's harder to keep away from us…" Naru said, and it had. Even if Raidou was their former sensei and had more experience, they weren't little kids anymore. And, dare she say it; they were pretty damn good at this teamwork thing.

Not perfect, but a hell of a lot better than oh so many years ago.

"Okay, I'm running out of ideas here…" Hi said, rubbing her soar shoulder.

"We've tried surprising him with clones…" Naru listed.

"No good." Hi agreed, checking it off in her mind.

"Trying to get him with traps…"

"Didn't work."

"Brute force…"

"Not even a scratch."

"Frustrated cursing and blindly throwing kunai…"

"Only made him laugh." Naru and Hi looked at each other, this was much harder than they thought, especially with just the two of them. Not only that, they were missing their strategist. This was just getting better and better... Then, inspiration, their eyes lighting up.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Naru asked.

"If I know you as well as I think I do, then yes, I believe I am." Hi answered, grinning.

Raidou must have been getting rusty, which meant that he was getting old.

"Fantastic…" Raidou sighed, rubbing the back of his head. His former students were much better, he had to admit, and there had been many close calls to them actually getting the bells from him. But cleverness turned to agitation, making them act quickly and blindly.

But still, he really didn't like to think of the fact that if they were getting better, he had been getting older. Maybe he'd take Asuma and Genma up on that drink they had offered, after this he was probably going to need it…

"Raidou-san…" A voice called him, and turning around, Raidou saw a certain green haired woman advancing towards him leisurely.

"Setsuna-san, what are you doing here?" Raidou blinked, looking at the smiling woman with confusion.

"You know, just thought I'd stop by…" Setsuna circled Raidou, trailing her hand over his flak jacket.

Raidou gulped, feeling his mouth and throat go dry.

"Um… Setsuna-san… Uh… Shouldn't you…?"

"Raidou-san…" Her warm breath hit his ear, cutting off his words. "Gotcha."

"What?" Raidou blinked. Setsuna vanished, replaced with a puff of smoke. The jingling of bells caught him, and looking, he saw Naru and Hi, both grinning insanely at him.

And both holding a small, silver bell.

**End Chapter 1**

Eevee-Oh. My. Gods! That took me forever to write! But I finally finished it, so booshaka!

HofuruChan-Wait, what?

NaruChan-Don't ask, just… Don't.

HofuruChan-I have to, she's always doing that…

NaruChan-Hofuru, she's our friend, what more do you need to know?

Eevee-Yeah, I'm strange, and proud (grins)

HofuruChan-We'll I know that, I mean, just look at your ta-

Eevee-Shut up, okay. Just shut up.

HofuruChan-(grins)

NaruChan-Fine then, I'll put the readers out of their misery.

**Special Thanks:**

Naru-chan – I know, I know, I'm working on it, I'm trying to develop character here… To slow?

Misao-chan – Stalker! (points accusingly)

_**Please Review!**_


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